Alignable tile



March 15, 1938. K. F. PETTY ALIGNABLE TILE* Filed Dec. 28, 195eINVENTOR. K/RK PE 77)/ I ATTORNEYS.

Patented Mar. 15, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

My invention relates to decorative or finishing tile used for wall andfloor covering, and has for its objects: First, to provide a compositetile having one or more resilient edges; second, to pro- 5 vide a tilehaving a vitreous body and a plurality of resiliently pliant edgeswhereby, after said tile is laid in a course, alignment may be effected;a third object is to provide a tile with a main body of solid materialand certain portions of pre-de-v termined edges composed of a pliantmaterial to aid in spacing and aligning after setting.vk

I attain the above objects by means of the construction and manufacturesillustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which-Fig. 1 is a plan Viewof a rectangular form of my tile; Fig. 2, an end View thereof; Fig. 3 isa plan View of a hexagon form of tile; Fig. 4 is a front view of aportion of a wall laid with my type of tile; Fig. 5, a section thereof,taken substantially on line 5-5, 20 Fig. 4 and Fig. 6, a fragmentaryperspective view of a slightly modified form of tile.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts in the several views.

Thebody of the tile, indicated by the numeral 2, is composed of theusual material, being baked clay usually with vitreous substance on theface thereof. After the tile is formed and finished, the edges aresmoothed and two adjacent edges, such as 3 and 4 (Fig. l) are providedwith spacercushions or pads indicated by 5 and 6, on edge 3, and 1 and 3on edge 4. These cushions are composed of a resiliently pliant materialand for this purpose I prefer to use non-deteriorating vulcanizedrubber, although in some instances it is better to use resilient orloosely packed coarse felt or other similar fibrous substance. Thesespacer-cushions are preferably attached to the edges of the tiles byWater-proof cement. However, in the modified form shown in Fig. 6, edgesof the tile body 2 are provided with dovetail shaped recesses I5,extending from the back toward, but not to the face. Fibrous spacercushions I6 are fitted into these recesses Where they are retained bycompression and the dovetail shape of the sides of the recesses. y,

It is to be noted that the spacer-cushions do not extend all the wayacross the edges to which they are attached, but leave a sufficientspace on the edge next the outer face toretain the grout along the frontedge, and permit a continuout finished joint.

It is necessary that the spacer-pads be placed on adjacent edges, or theequivalent thereof, so that there is adjustment between joints both 55horizontally and vertically. For this reason when (Cl. 'I2-18) tile areshaped other than rectangular, such as the hexagon form shown in Fig. 3,spacers I2 are provided on three or sufficient adjacent sides to effectadjustment and alignment of each course after it is laid. 5

Tile, composed as above described, are set by first preparing a plasticsetting-bed 9, (Figs. 4 and 5) upon which several courses of tile arethen laid, starting from a vertical plumb line I0 on one edge and ahorizontal baseboard I I at the 10 bottom. Before the setting-bed 9 setsthe courses of the tile are aligned with a steel straight edge bytapping lightly with a mallet, according to the usual practice. Sincethe spacer-pads 3 and 4 are composed of a resilient or plasticsubstanceV to provide slight give or take-up between each of thecontacting edges, this, I have found, is sufficient to permit any givencourse, or even several courses, to be aligned, so long as thesetting-bed is in a plastic and adhesive condition. Alignment can beprocured in the same way both vertically and horizontally. Whenalignment is satisfactory and the setting-bed has hardened, the tile arefixed in aligned positions by inserting grout cement I4, in the jointstherebetween. This is made to cover the spaces in front of the spacer-`pads making a finished continuous joint. In Figs. 4 .and 5, grout isshown inserted in the lower joint Il, but it is not shown inserted intothe upper joint I8, in order to more clearly indicate the position ofthe spacer-pads.

It is my intention to, in all cases, provide a tile having thespacer-pads permanently attached to comprise a unit structure, and avoidthe additional handling of separate spacing devices now commonly usedsuch as, string, sand and the like.

While I have described and illustrated the preferred form of myinvention, it is apparent that, to those familiar with the art, numerouschanges and substitutions may be made, all of which, however, wouldremain within the spirit of my disclosure. Therefore I Wish to belimited only by the following claims.

I claim:

1. The self-aligning tile comprising, in combination, a body offired-clay having a plurality of pre-determined adjacent edges providingwith dovetailed recesses, extending from the back toward the frontthereof and resiliently pliant spacer-pads retain Within said recessesby cornpression, and having their outer faces extending above the edgeof the tile body from which they protrude.

2. A self-aligning tile comprising, in combination, a tile body of firedclay having its front and back faces parallel, joined by a plurality ofedges substantially at right angles thereto, said edges being providedwith a plurality of recesses extending from the back toward, but not to,the front face, with the walls thereof converging toward the outside toprovide means of retention, in combination with resiliently pliantspacer pads shaped to ft within said recesses and having their endsconverging outwardly to substantially conform to the corresponding partsof the recesses in said tile whereby they are retained therein, andhaving a at face extending outward and beyond the at edge of said tilewherein they are retained.

KIRK FRANCIS PETTY.

